Kentucky man pleads guilty to human trafficking, sex crime

A 36-year-old Anderson County man could face up to five years in prison after pleading guilty to human trafficking and other charges, law enforcement officials announced Friday.

Charles Wesley Walls of Lawrenceburg pleaded guilty Feb. 27 in Franklin Circuit Court to one count of unlawful use of an electronic communications system to procure a minor for sex, a Class D felony, and one count of promoting human trafficking with a person under age, a Class C felony.

Walls is scheduled to be sentenced April 20. He could receive up to five years in prison. He remains in the Franklin County Detention Center.

Attorney General Andy Beshear’s cybercrimes unit began an investigation of Walls in November and found he was engaging in explicit conversations online to get a minor for sex and to engage the minor in human trafficking. According to the plea agreement filed in Franklin Circuit Court, Walls posted a personal online ad that said: “Seeking young ladies for entertainment. Real company, no one will ever see you.”

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An investigator with Beshear’s cyber crimes unit posing as a mother of an 11-year-old girl responded to the ad and emailed Walls. Walls told the investigator to bring the 11-year-old girl to Lawrenceburg where she would perform sex acts in front of a web camera for 4 to 5 hours and would be paid between $50 and $100, “depending on tips.”

Walls was arrested by Kentucky State Police on Nov. 26. Beshear said several law enforcement agencies including the Kentucky State Police, Lawrenceburg Police Department, Anderson County Sheriff’s Office and the Franklin County Commonwealth Attorney’s office assisted in the investigation.